Nick's Beeshttp://nicksbees.co.uk
…adventures of Nick and his BeesFri, 02 Feb 2018 15:15:48 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.147232857Making dummy boardshttp://nicksbees.co.uk/2017/02/making-dummy-boards/
http://nicksbees.co.uk/2017/02/making-dummy-boards/#commentsMon, 13 Feb 2017 13:51:19 +0000http://nicksbees.co.uk/?p=662(READ MORE)]]>I have found beekeeping dummy boards to be quite expensive, especially if you use 14×12 boxes like me (approx £7). As a result I have often done without, which has on occasion given me grief of brace comb to the wall, or in other cases a whole new piece of comb handing from the roof.

This year I’ve decided I’ve had enough and that I would make some.

Step 1

I had spare top bars, so I used those – but you could easily use top bars from old frames, just clean and scorch them (or soak in 1:10 bleach or boil in washing soda) to make sure they are disease free.

Drill 3 small holes in each, smaller than the screws you are about to be using

Add a line of glue

Step 2

Cut some sheets of plywood to fit – I lined it up with a brood frame to check the height and the box for the width. Don’t forget the top bar adds a little height (like I did before cutting)

I used 12mm which is a bit overkill, but was what I had to hand – 9mm is probably best, with rigidity and ability to drill into from above. 3mm will glue on / nail on, but in previous experiments has been very flimsy / prone to damage and warping in practice. more than 12mm will protrude and may not sit flat with the weight. I used marine ply, which will probably last better in the humidity of a beehive .

I cut it with a mini circular saw, which left me with a bit of a messy edge, a rasp soon sorted this out.

Step 3

Attach the top bar to the ply wood, using the glue and holding it tightly in place while screwing in. When not pre-drilling the holes in the top bar it easily splits (from experience)

WARNING – clean your equipment well before it touches anything that is going to sit for weeks, or you will end up with something that is NOT drinkable

While brewing this I ALWAYS use sterilised equipment, we are growing a yeast in ‘ideal conditions’ which means anything that gets in there will grow nicely too. Pay attention to anything that touches the mix, spoons, siphons, funnels, etc. A quick rinse under the tap or dropping equipment on the floor then using it it not ok – the “5 second rule” does NOT apply here – dipping a finger in to “try a bit” can have consequences.

Equipment

Method

My method would be

stick it all in a 1gallon demijohn without the yeast, adding 1 crushed campden tablet – this will kill off anything (yeast/mold) that might be in the ingredients that would grow when you don’t want it to.

Put the bung and airlock on – agitate after 1 day to make sure the campden tablet has distributed well

Leave for 48hrs – allowing the capden tablet to take effect, and that effect to wear off

add the yeast and stir / shake well.

the 48hrs following this will feature significant fermentation, so be aware of flying bungs. Store in a warm place, not over 25°C, not under 18°C – airing cupboards are good – too hot kills the yeast, too cold makes fermentation slow

Agitate every 7 days, trying distribute the sediment around – you should see bubbles rising in the airlock – this is the product of fermentation (CO2).

If you are storing in a warm place for long periods it may need topping up with boiled water (boiled to prevent contamination).

The airlock will also likely need topping up – do not let it run dry.

After 4 weeks* decant / siphon (‘rack’ is the technical term) into a new demijohn to separate from the sediment.

* this should be 4 days after there are no more bubbles seen in the airlock

It can be moved from the warm location as fermentation should no longer be happening

Fermentation can be ‘stopped’ by adding a campden tablet, shorter fermentation will mean a dry / stronger mead, shorter will mean a sweeter mead (subject to yeast used)

Decant again 7 days later after sediment has formed again

7 days later, it can be bottled and drunk – but it will improve if stored in a cool place

What I didn’t know is that this is predestined from their time as a pupa (I had thought they just changed as an adult based on conditions). Apparently the temperature of the brood nest defines their physiology. Bees raised at 36°C will be summer bees, but raising them at 34.5°C will result in winter bees.

Cite : BBKA No223, pg381. HOBOS.

* winter bees are also noted for growing ‘fat bodies’ which allow them to store energy for longer periods which helps them get through the cold of winter.

]]>http://nicksbees.co.uk/2016/12/winter-and-summer-bees/feed/0641Cold hives, hot swaps, swarm !http://nicksbees.co.uk/2016/05/cold-hives-hot-swaps-swarm/
http://nicksbees.co.uk/2016/05/cold-hives-hot-swaps-swarm/#respondSat, 14 May 2016 11:56:45 +0000http://nicksbees.co.uk/?p=619(READ MORE)]]>It was May 1st; I never seem to get round to writing these things up when they happen. The weather had been very unusual, we’d had a warm winter, right through to early Feb and then cold and miserable right through to mid-April. As a consequence the bees had not balled over winter and I’d left feed on. I’d sublimated oxalic to deal with varroa, but due to the warm weather I would not expect them to be broodless which is required for that to work optimally. A week or so before I’d been and looked through the bees, done some of a spring clean, but the weather didn’t hold for a full job.

The first hive I went into, I found the queen right away, she was walking around on top of the frames as I lifted the crown board; and she was alone. This had been a good hive last year and had gone into winter full of stores and as I said still had feed on top. Further to this I’d also put on a pollen patty a few weeks back and when I did the ‘spring clean’ I’d noted they only had a couple of frames of brood so I had topped in up from a neighbour with an extra frame of capped brood to boost the numbers into spring. On further inspection, they had basically ignored the doughnut feeder full of syrup, they had gone through much of the pollen patty and then starved due to hard stores of ivy honey. This had happened last year; with a mild winter they had eaten all the syrup given to get them through the winter and replaced it with ivy honey. The plan was to leave syrup on top so they could use that. Unfortunately it seemed they did not get the memo. In short the hive was beyond rescue, even though the queen was still alive.

The second hive was a bit short of frames of brood for the time of year, but then most were, and this one had supported hive one earlier, so 4 frames of brood was as expected.

The third hive had been my favourite hive, productive, very calm and not swarmy. Unfortunately the wasps had robbed it to death late in the season and it has stood empty since, stone on top signifying it was empty.

Forth hive, basically had lost its queen, when I looked in before there was a sealed queen cell, but this time no sign of it and only drones being laid.

Fifth hive – packed !! The few weeks previous I had noted they were on 7 frames and so I’d put a super on. They had since put a bit of honey in the super, but it was by no means full. The brood was almost wall to wall though in the brood box, 10 frames. Looking through they had made a load of swarm cells – and I mean a LOAD, going through the hive about 16. Time to do something about it first job “Find the queen. All the way through, more swarm cells, no queen. Through again, no queen, cut down on queen cells, but not all of them. No queen in sight I thought I would follow a couple of manipulations. First frame with eggs and early larvae to hive four as a test frame, three more frames complete with a nice queen cell to the empty hive three to split, to reduce the colony pressure on five nd have a new hive three, feeder on top to support that. I then went back through, but still no queen to be seen. Another super on top then time to go.

Just as I was leaving, stepping through the gap in the hedge I noted a nice swarm about a foot off the floor – so that is where the queen went !. Well I didnt have my swarm catching box or anything, so, solution, back to hive one, knock any remaining bees out, carry hive to the swarm, place under the swarm, quick shake of the branch, flump, bees in the box; hive back to the stand, feeder on, roof on, job done !

All in all not a bad day, starting with 2 working hives, ending up with 4, maybe 5, if the test frame takes.

Dense forests crowded with branches and leaves provide quite the obstacle course for fast-moving insects. How they are able to identify gaps to move through seems to defy their small brains and low resolution eyesight. Researchers at Sweden’s Lund University have now uncovered the tricks the animals use to navigate these tight spaces without running into trouble.

“Our results suggest that current levels of pesticide exposure could be significantly affecting how bees are interacting with wild plants, and impairing the crucial pollination services they provide that support healthy ecosystem function,” he said.

In other words, if herbicides hinder bumblebees’ ability to learn and adapt, then wild bees could become increasingly sensitive to changes in the environment. According to a separate review, an estimated 57 different herbicides are poisoning European honey bees, which is contributing to the rapidly declining bee population worldwide.

Their study, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that N. bombi was present in the U.S. as early as 1980, well before several species of wild bumble bees started to go missing across the country. The study also found that N. bombi infections in large-scale commercial bumble bee pollination operations coincided with infections and declines in wild bumble bees

Interspecific transfers of viruses between the western honey bee (Apis mellifera) and the eastern honey bee (Apis cerana) are rare, even if honey bees are kept in close proximity, new research reveals. Elevated global losses of managed western honey …

In two new studies, researchers from Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences have discovered that the stress of short-term nutritional deprivation as larvae (baby bees) actually makes honey bees more resilient to starvation as adults.